Did you want the computer-generated snake, or was it something you were asked to include?

Actually it was. As we were breaking the story, I talked about doing something that Glory, our villain of the season, was going to summon that was a 'Key-sniffer'.

I believe it was Marti Noxon who came up with the idea of it being a snake, a reptile. She liked the idea. I was picturing something more amorphous, bug-like, something non-human looking. Running from that, Marti went, "What if it�s a reptile, what if she goes to a reptile house?" and that became that.

We�ve had some problems doing snakes sometimes. It�s very hard to pull off and I think they did a pretty good job. As a device, story-wise, I think it works perfectly fine. For me, I�m staying away from snakes for a long time. I�m going strictly with kittens or something.